Exploration
by Ragnarok545
Summary: A story about 4 friends who are hunters by trade, and receive a job to explore new lands in an attempt to find new species, but there are many mysterious things in these areas besides new species. First fanfic ever, please R&R - Chapter 8 is up!
1. Prologue: Thrill of the hunt

_**The sun beat down on the greenery of the hilled area, which was silent except for the occasional sound of a far off velociprey. Kungen waited on a ledge near the entrance to a cave, which he assumed was a wyvern nest. He started to become angry when the rest of his group was moving so slowly and began shouting.**_

"_**The damned thing could be dead by now if you three would hurry up!"**_

"_**You know you could wake it up if you yell, the nest can't be that big, we wouldn't want it to fly off again now would we?"**_

"_**It would also fly off again if we take three days getting to it, now hurry up will ya?"**_

_**A short slim woman in black hooded armor studded with bones for extra protection began walking faster to get to Kungen"**_

"_**I'm with Kungen here, I'd like to kill the pest so I can go home and take a nap."**_

" '_**Atta girl Nikki! Let's just go and kill it ourselves eh?"**_

_**A man in armor made of the rarely seen blue rathalos with an enormous sword made of the same rare beast slowly climbed up the ledge after a tall woman in armor made from the legendary Kirin had made it to the top. **_

_**The leader of the pack, Kungen had already drawn his hammer which he named Juggernaut for it's unstoppable blows, and began running inside. **_

_**What they saw would kill a normal person from fright, but they were hunters, paid to eliminate threats as what lie before them, a sleeping, wounded rathalos. **_

"_**Nel, go stand up there and ready your bow, I'll tell you when to fire," Kungen whispered to the girl in the Kirin armor.**_

"_**Gotcha," she replied.**_

"_**Nikki you know what to do for this mark right?"**_

"_**yeah yeah, I know what to do and I'd like to do it quick."**_

"_**So would I but now that it's in our sights we can't make a mistake or we'll end up dead," he paused and turned to the fellow robed in blue rathalos gear. "Felix you're with Nikki, you'll get the other wing."**_

"_**Got it," he replied.**_

_**They all drew their weapons, Nikki unsheathed her two swords which carried great heat, being made from fire wyverns, the Twin Flames, and stood quietly behind the right wing of the Rathalos. **_

_**Felix drew the Obelion, an enormous blue sword, and stood quietly behind the left wing of the Rathalos**_

_**Kungen quietly placed him and his oversized black diablos gear right in front of the face of the sleeping beast, hammer drawn, while Nel took aim with her heartshot bow.**_

_**Kungen then drew back his hammer and began charging an attack that could crush steel like it was nothing, which was also the signal.**_

_**Nikki quickly drove her two sword into the wing of the rathalos, straight into the ground, pinning it, Felix did the same to the left wing as quickly as possible with the enormous sword, the Rathalos had awoken but was still not sure what was going on, all it knew was it couldn't move, which was just what the hunters wanted.**_

_**Nel then shot arrows swiftly, and pierced the legs of the rathalos so that it had no chance of escaping, As the rathalos looked up it knew it was another hunt in the books, as Kungen delivered the charge attack straight to the head of the monster crushing its skull and killing it quickly.**_

"_**All done!" stated Nel happily.**_

"_**Okay you all know the drill, take what we can carry and leave the rest to the prey"**_

_**They all took scales and hides of the deceased wyvern, and left on the long journey back to Pokke. **_


	2. A New Job

"Too easy if you ask me," Kungen said rather loudly as he slammed his mug on the table.

"Better easy than life threatening," Felix said even though he himself knew he'd rather it be life threatening if it was a harder enemy and worth a greater bounty.

"You know that's not true I can see it on your face ya liar!"

"yeah that rathalos wasn't worth very much, only 1500 zenni per head," stated Nel drearily.

The 4 hunters almost always did the same thing after a hunt, they would get drinks at the guild hall, while Nikki slept with her head rested on the table, since she was always sleepy, they had wondered if she was hypoglycemic, but when they consulted her about it, she said she was just always tired, and had nothing to make her that way.

"It'll get boring around here in little Pokke if we don't start seeing some posts for bigger game," Nel said

"Well there aren't even any hunts on the board right now, so it's not that it's there's no big game, there's no game at all now after we killed that damned rathalos!" yelled Kungen.

"I could always say 'I hope we see a big nasty difficult mark posted on the board tomorrow' but I have a feeling that we'd get either a Velocidrome, or something that could even be too tough."

"Pffft! Felix! Too tough you say? There's nothing we can't handle right?" Kungen Shouted. Nikki agreed by raising her fist in the air while still somehow asleep.

"I'm feeling a bit Nikki-esque at the moment, can we call it a day?" Nel said through a yawn.

"Yeah sure, meet here tomorrow after breakfast," Kungen said mentally fighting off a yawn himself.

There weren't too many houses in Pokke, the biggest were given to the hunters of the village, so they could live comfortably when they weren't putting their life on the line for the safety of the village. Kungen lazily walked to his house in high hopes that Felix had jinxed them by saying there could be a hunt so tough it was dangerous posted tomorrow. He slipped into his bed and slept on this hope.

The next morning everyone had breakfast made by their hired felynes, and went to the guild hall, Kungen had been there early and was staring at the hunt board.

"Anything good like you had hoped?" asked Felix

"Nope, in fact, there's not anything at all"

"Well that sucks"

"Yup, so what're we gonna do for today, patrol the mountains?"

"I'd rather be swallowed whole by a Khezu," Nikki mumbled.

"Well we could find something," Kungen said, though he was pretty sure they wouldn't.

Just then the door to the hall's office swung open and the manager of the guild hall's mountain branch, Kefka walked over to them. Kefka had once been a legendary hunter, people said that when he was young he had single handedly _killed_ a Lao-Shan Lung, a dragon the size of a mountain. Not many had the skill he had earlier in life.

"Well there actually is _something_ the question is if you'll want to do it or not."

"And what would that be old man?" Kungen said

"Guild scouts, and observation balloons have discovered something quite interesting."

"What would that be"

"A new never before seen forest, with trees taller and greenery thicker than anywhere else seen before."

"I thought the whole map of Minegarde was completed," said Nikki with a yawn.

"It was, until we found this forest, an island far off the coast of the mainland, we were interested to find out if there were new monster species there, so we sent some hunters, but they never reported back."

"I wonder if a three-headed Kut Ku lives there, and they were killed by it," said Nel.

"I doubt that," the old man replied, " But anyway, I was wondering if you all might check it out, we'd like to know if there are new species there."

"Well?" Kungen turned to everyone else.

They all talked amongst themselves for a minute, and eventually signaled with a simultaneous nod.

"We'll leave in two days."

"Excellent"


	3. Aggressive Rainbow

"I freakin' hate boats."

"Stop your whining Kungen, we should be close now, it's been a day or two," Felix said with a tone of aggravation.

"You don't even know how long it's been!"

"Well I kinda do…"

"KINDA!?"

"Shut up you stupid congas," Nel said.

Kungen mumbled a few profanities under his breath and laid on his back in the boat that was built for about 10 people, but with all the supplies they had brought, it was cramped.

"I see land!" Nikki yelled excitedly, which was somewhat unlike her.

Everyone shot up and rocked the boat a bit to stare out at what had appeared on the horizon.

"Those are some freakin' tall trees."

The island slowly got closer, and when they finally landed at a beach, they secured the boat on the inland so that it would be safe from heavy rain, currents, and hopefully monsters.

"This will be our base," Kungen said with authority. "The supplies we can carry we'll take, when we run out we return here," he stopped for a breath, "Our job is to explore the entire island looking for new monster species and treasure."

"Treasure wasn't part of the job"

"It is now, I'd like to go back and make a bit more than we're paid to do this, which may be a lot, but you never know what we could find out here."

Nel's mind immediately wandered back to the three-headed Kut Ku.

"It's still light out so let's go."

-------------------------------------

They walked through bushes, trees, and strange bugs which Nikki was recording the existence of on a small notepad. They eventually found a clearing where they stopped to rest for a minute.

"Can we eat now? I'm hungry," Nel whined.

"Yeah sure it looks safe enough." Kungen began to set up a small meal.

"Let's eat!"

The gobbled down all the food, not even thinking of rationing a thing. And then a large shadow appeared on the trunk of a tree.

"Kungen, there's something behind you…"

"A bug?"

"No, a bird."

"What's the problem with a bird?"

"It's a really, really, REALLY big bird."

"So?"

A loud screech pierced the group's ears, as a brightly colored bird that's body shape was similar to Kut Ku, but looked nothing like one besides that. The bird opened it's mouth and breathed a blue gas behind Kungen, the wind blew it towards him, and he fell asleep.

"Shit, was that poison?" Nikki said.

"No poison works that fast, don't engage it, I have an idea, take notes of it's movement, we'll need to kill it," said Felix as he stood up and grabbed a stone. "Here goes." Felix threw the stone at Kungen with all his might, and hit him square in the side.

"YEOW!" Kungen said, as he slowly got up. He then turned around and saw the bird, and asked, "How long has this been here?"

"It was the BIG bird I told you about, it put you to sleep with it's breath."

"Weird."

The bird jumped at them with it's razor sharp talons bared, and tried to strike, but the attack had poor accuracy the way it was carried out, and all the hunters avoided the attack.

"Watch it's movements, don't get hit, we need to know it's openings."

They ran circles around the bird and as they watched, almost all it did was bare it's talons, and jump forward wings flapping like an angry goose.

"Alright got an idea, pretty easy, have one of us on every side of it, when it jumps at you avoid it, then everyone who is behind it attack, hit to kill.," Kungen yelled to the rest of them.

All four hunters followed this plan immediately and began the formation. The brightly colored bird jumped at Felix, who rolled out of the way easily, The other three then attacked, Nikki aimed for the legs of the beast, impaling its left leg, and placing a large gash in the right, severely reducing it's mobility. Nel then followed up by shooting it straight in the eye, but before it could turn to her Kungen swung his Juggernaut straight at the body of the beast with all his strength, crushing several bones and knocking it down.

"Nikki-"

"On it"

Nikki then jumped to the bird and drove both blades deep into it's small head, the bird stopped flailing, and fell quiet.

"Ok I gotta say," Kungen began, "for a new species that thing was pretty damn weak, I barely even broke a sweat."

"Yeah that's true, but at least we get to say we were the first to see it and live," Felix replied.

"When you say it like that it sounds like it was formidable though," Nel said with a smile.

Nikki began recording the species in her notepad, including a sketch, and info about it's tactics. When she was finished Kungen stood behind her and took a look.

"Hypnocatrice?"

"It reminded me of Cockatrices from old lore stories my mother told me, and it put you to sleep with it's breath, like hypnosis, Hypno-Catrice."

"Ah I see, makes sense, so that's one new species, I wonder what else lives here."

The group of four started walking on, and in the distance they saw something that interested them.

"That tree…way in the distance there," Nikki Pointed, "is enormous, let's go take a look, something about it is a little funky."

"Looks pretty far off."

"Yeah but at least it'd give us a goal."

"True, let's see what we find on the way, and when we get there we can loop back around and head home on the boat."

They started their long walk to the great tree in the distance, anxious to see what awaited them there.


	4. Walking Nightmare

"Wow that's a pretty bird over there," Nel said in awe. Kungen immediately turned behind him.

"I don't see another Hypnocatrice."

"No I just saw a bird, one that isn't 10 feet tall and destructive."

"Well what would you expect after last time."

"Is that tree getting any closer?" Felix muttered.

"A little, but juuuuuust a little," Nikki replied through a yawn.

"When we find a clearing I'd like to stop and eat, I'm starving," Nel whined.

"Okay, I'm a little hungry too."

They eventually came upon a clearing where they set up to eat behind a large tree where hopefully they would be out of sight from anything that wanted to eat _them. _A Kelbi walked carefully towards them. It started staring at Felix with innocent eyes.

"I guess that means you want some of my food eh?" The Kelbi gently nudged him. "Okay okay, here," Felix placed a small piece of meat in front of the kelbi and it started to eat. The harmless beast then trotted away.

"I wish they weren't vaulable for anything, people should just leave them alone, they're so innocent, too bad their horns make the best medicine," Nel said with a frown. They all watched as the kelbi trotted off to more of its kind when something they didn't expect happened.

A giant black mass with eyes that glowed like hell's fire dropped from the trees, and landed straight on the kelbi. The mass resembled Tigrex's shape and evolutionary form, because its wings had turned into arms, but instead of scales, it had a thing layer of fur, fur that was darker than the night sky.

"What….the hell….is that…" Kungen said, clearly full of curiosity, but also fear.

"It must be related to Tigrex, look at it's wings."

"Get read everyone, that thing looks aggressive, and it's clearly hungry."

They began to sneak close to the beast, using the instinct they had acquired as hunters, they could tell it was strong.

"Same plan as before," Kungen whispered, "Watch it's movements, look for a chance to strike, be ready for battle commands." They all nodded.

The black beast turned around and saw Kungen, it let out a shrieking roar, and crouched placing it's tail in the air, and head back.

"What is it do-" Kungen was cut off, as the wyvern pounced towards him, but unlike more primitively minded wyverns, it didn't charge in a straight line, it bounded quickly, too quickly to be a normal wyvern that anyone with proper training could hunt, this wyvern was a threat to anyone. Kungen didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to dodge an attack that didn't seem to have a hole. Just then he felt his feet slip out from under him, he had been knocked down by the charge.

The wyvern stared him down and was ready to strike, it bared its fangs. Kungen knew he had to act, he couldn't thing he had to rely on instinct now, as the others rushed to try and save him, he raised his leg and kicked the wyvern square in the face. It flinched and raised it's arm up releasing its hold on the hunter, but it knew it lost him, so it went for the kill. The wyvern jumped in the air and turned around, and fatal 3' spikes extended from the end of its tail. It swung the leathel weapon straight down to the ground at Kungen.

Kungen nimbly rolled out of the way, but he didn't make it all the way, a spike caught his foot, and placed a deep cut in it. Kungen quickly moved out of the way, and saw that the wyvern's tail was stuck in the ground, it ripped it out after about 6 seconds. It was then he started on his plan.

"Kungen can you move okay?"

"Not really, but I can move, I'll figure something out for myself, but for now, Felix come over here and Nikki, taunt it somehow, throw a sonic!"

Felix ran over to Kungen and slid under the wyvern which was confused, as it hadn't even seen the other three hunters, Nikki then followed Kungen's advice and threw a sonic bomb at the beast, it roared in pain as its ears stung. The beast looked at Nikki with it's glowing eyes, and she felt its cold stare.

"Now Nikki, Hold it's attention and run by that tree!"

Kungen and Felix were standing to the southeast of a large tree, Nikki ran to the side of this tree facing the two hunters and threw another sonic bomb. The wyvern was angry, it wanted them to be its next meal no matter how mutilated they were. It spun around and raised it's barbed tail once more.

"Move! Now! Get out of there!"

Nikki dashed around the tree, avoiding the attack, the wyvern's tail hit the ground and stuck once more, as soon as this happened Kungen signaled to Felix, and with that signal Felix ran at the lethal tail, and brought his sword down, and removed the wyvern from its greatest weapon.

"Now this should be a little easier, its charge has no hole so take cover if it comes at you, put a stone of a tree between you and it at all times."

The Wyvern roared in an attempt to stun the hunters, then looked at Felix who had removed its tail, and dashed. Felix was still running for cover, and was knocked down by the Wyvern's charge, and was swiped in the back by its claws. The wound was deep and painful, but not fatal, knowing this Felix took the opportunity of attack and swung his sword as quickly as he could, but the wyvern jumped back, narrowly avoiding having its head split.

Nikki jumped on the chance and jumped from the a tree she had placed her self in and impaled the monster with her swords. It shrieked in pain but it was far from finished, it had the tenacity of a dragon, it was no normal wyvern. Nikki withdrew her swords and jumped back but the wyvern knew she had and turned on a dime and smacked Nikki with it's uniquely-evolved forearms, sending her flying into the tree that she had lept from. Every part of her body stung, she had a hard time getting up, but fought off the pain and tried to climb back up the tree for shelter and another attack chance.

Nel fired arrows at the beast to give Nikki her chance to get away, one of the arrows penetrated the arrows didn't have a huge effect as they didn't hit any weak points, if the beast even had weak points. The wyvern looked at her and prepared to pounce, she knew it was coming and jumped at her, she tried to get on top of a small ledge that jutted out from a rock formation, but the monster knocked her down.

Kungen knew he had to think, everyone was getting hit, nothing fatal had happened yet but he knew if he didn't act something fatal would happen. He looked around him looking for something, anything. Then he saw it, he put his hammer away on his back, and picked up the wyvern's tail, he ran as fast as his cut foot could carry, as the wyvern did what he was afraid of, it bit deep into Nel's side. Kungen knew its teeth would go too far and cause organ damage if he didn't act fast, he tried running faster, clenching his teeth through the pain.

Then when he got close he raised the tail above his head and brought down the destructive spikes straight on the wyvern's body between its two sets of limbs. The wyvern was shot to the ground by the blow and slowly turned to him without getting up, then Kungen drew his hammer, and used an attack he saw at the training school, and at that time he thought it was stupid but thought it was perfect here. Kungen raised his hammer out and up and swung it away from the wyvern, the force spun him around and then he used all the force to swing the hammer down by his feet into the side of the wyvern's head. This mutilated the side of its face, crushed part of its skull and knocked it away, and also knocked it unconscious. Kungen took two seconds to stop and think about why he had never used the golf swing before, but then he brought the hammer straight down on the wyvern's head, and crushed it.

He took a minute to look around, at his friends, Nel was unconscious, blood pouring from her sides from the bite wounds, Felix had dragged himself against a tree and was searching his pouch for a mega potion to calm the pain of his cut open back, and Nikki was having trouble getting down from the tree because she realized she could barely move, and she felt like a living bruise. Kungen limped over to the tree.

"Jump Nikki, I gotcha," he sat down so that catching her wouldn't put too much pressure on his foot. Nikki jumped down, and Kungen caught her, and placed her against the tree. Then he limped over to Felix.

"I know you're not in the best shape either buddy, but Nel got hit the worst, can you help me treat her?"

"Yeah..but Kungen.."

"Hmmm?"

"What was that thing?" His eyes strayed to the dead wyvern.

"I don't know, but I hope it's rare, if we see another we'll have to leave early, we should try to walk around another day after resting back at the boat."

"Yeah… anyways let's help Nel."

They slowly walked over to Nel, and applied bandadges to stop the bleeding and got her to swallow a mega potion once she woke up.

"Kungen…" Kungen moved over to Nikki. "I can barely move right now, I don't think I can get back to the boat, I guess I hit that tree a bit harder than I thought," she managed a faint smile, but it faded as Kungen picked her up and carried her on his back.

"Felix can you get Nel?"

"I can walk," Nel mumbled, she stood up and fell straight back down.

"No you clearly can't."

"Yeah I can carry her, just not on my back, it's kinda split open."

Felix picked up Nel, and they slowly walked back to the boat, where there materials to create makeshift beds.

"I wonder what I should name that hellish wyvern back there," Nikki thought out loud.

"I'd let the guild think of that one, they usually come up with bearable names," Felix replied. "I'd just note in the report that it is very dangerous and if sighted you should place a trap or a diversion and run."

"Yeah, I'll do that."

Kungen made cots from what he could since he was the only one who could move around enough, they all dozed off hoping they would never see another wyvern like that again.


	5. The Prophecy

The group awoke to the sun beating down on the small beach at which they slept. The forest was alive with the sounds of various insects and birds, and the snores of 3 wounded hunters, and the sound of the fourth making a fire.

"I wish the others would wake up a bit quicker, then cooking would be a bit easier, since I always have to make the fire myself.." Felix mumbled.

Felix was wearing heavy cloth work clothes, he didn't want to wear his armor unless he had to, because his back had been lacerated in the earlier battle with the mysterious black wyvern. He slowly moved over to the boxes they had packed with food, and grabbed dried meat and cans of beans. He placed the beans in a pan and cooked them over the fire, while the dried meat sat by the fire warming.

"Smells pretty good, although beans are a bit of an odd breakfast," Kungen said sneaking up on Felix.

"Oh, you're awake."

"Yeah, but my foot hurts like hell, I'll be walking with a limp for a while."

"Will you be okay to hunt?"

"Yeah, the ones I'm worried about are Nikki and Nel, Nikki could have badly bruised her spine, and Nel, well, she's pretty messed up, that thing had a lot of sharp teeth."

"Yeah…we should try to blaze to that tree and back, then get out of here."

"I agree"

Kungen went over to his gear and slipped on his Black Diablos greaves to try and prepare for a long walk in them later, then went back to Felix and sat by the fire.

Nikki slowly awoke and raised her head, only to lay back down again. She rested there for a minute then slowly rose out of her cot, and slipped on some cloth ware similar to Felix's.

"What's for breakfast."

"Beans and Jerky."

"Meh, It'll do."

Nikki moved sat by the fire and yawned, waiting for the beans to be cooked.

Nel wearily rose from her cot and walked over to the fire, she looked around almost as if she didn't know where she was.

"May wanna put some clothes on there Nelly," Kungen said staring at the beans, wishing they were done.

Nel looked down at herself then trotted over to a trunk and did so.

"So what exactly happened yesterday," she said slipping her arm through a sleeve in a work shirt "All I remember is a fight, and all I know now is that my side has holes in it."

"That's about all there is to know, we were attacked by a black wyvern, and it bit you when you couldn't get out of its charge," Felix said while scooping beans into small bowls he had sitting by the fire and handing them to the other hunters.

"Well I gotta say, that sucks, cause it really hurts."

"I'd assume it would."

The four hunters ate in silence, mentally preparing for the journey ahead. When they had all finished they put on their gear, and stood around the fire pit.

"The mission for today is to get to the enormous tree in the middle of the forest, and come back, recording any new species of bugs and birds we see, and wyverns if we see them, though I know I speak for us all when I say I hope we don't see one," Kungen said with authority.

The hunters all nodded and began their walk. They looped around the path they had taken before, just incase the wyvern corpses had attracted scavengers. They wanted to avoid another fight at all costs. When they could smell death from where they were they assumed they were close to one of the corpses they had created the previous day. Nikki moved through the brush and spotted the mutilated black wyvern, and returned the the group.

"That thing that kicked the shit out of us the other day is just over there, so we're about where we were before."

"That's good, so we've covered a lot of ground in less than half the time, let's keep going."

The four trekked on, passing oddities in the form of bugs and birds, and even some strange trees, all of which Nikki recorded on her notepad.

Eventually the tree in the distance grew closer and closer, until they could see it clearly in front of them. The gigantic tree was in a clearing, there was about 10 feet of nothing but grass surrounding the base of the tree, no other trees came too close to it.

"This is the tree, let's look around a bit, then head back," Kungen said.

They all walked around the tree a bit, until they saw an opening underneath it. The opening was dark, as no sunlight could reach it, but it was clearly big enough for anyone to stand in it, it could have been considered a large cave, but there was something strange about it.

Kungen took flint and of a pouch on his belt and lit a branch on fire for light and began to walk into the cavern beneath the tree, and motioned for the others to follow.

The cave was wet, the entire floor was covered in several inches of rainwater, and from bottom to top the cave measured about 30 feet, there was plenty of room to move around.

"I don't see anything worth looking at, all I see is wet, and more wet, not even an antechamber or anything else to explore," Kungen said with dissapointment in his voice.

"Hang on I think I see another room over here," Nikki said as she walked away from the pack. "Yeah there's definitely something here, Kungen shine the torch over here."

Kungen did so, and they saw a doorway, about the size of a normal one in a house, leading into a dark room. Kungen's curiosity got the best of him and he advanced into it.

The room was small, about 10 feet high, and Kungen only walked about 20 steps before hitting a wall and stopping.

"There's something over here Kungen," Felix said feeling a wall that was on the left side of the room.

Kungen placed the torch by the wall that Felix was inspecting revealing a stone tablet that was in the wall.

"What..is this..?"

"There's something written on it."

"Kungen hold the torch against the wall, it's stone it won't catch like the rest of the tree would, I'd like to try and see what it says," Nikki said.

"Alright but if we end up burning the whole place down, it's on you."

Kungen held the torch right on top of the wall, and Nikki placed her face close to it and read.

"In the tower, hidden by trees, the floating god sleeps and gathers strength, he is protected by his guardians," she paused. "The black nightmare of the great forest, Nargacuga, the lord of the sand sea The Makai Diablos, Ruler of the volcanos, Volganos."

" 'Black Nightmare of the great forest…." Kungen thought out loud.

"There's more," Nikki said. "When all of the guardians fall the path to the great tower will open, and the sleeping god will wake, the tower will be guarded by the Silver King and Golden Queen, who will keep the passage to the god sealed, as he wreaks havoc on those who once opposed him."

"That it?"

"Yeah…"

"I wrote it all down, now I'd like to get out of here so I know we're safe," Nel said

"I agree, let's hurry back to the boat."

They quickly walked out of the cavern, and started on the walk back.

"So what was that on the tablet back there?" Felix asked.

"I don't know, but I'm sure the black wyvern was the 'Black Nightmare of the great forest Nargacuga," Kungen said. "I don't know anything else about it but I'm sure we can ask Kefka to look into guild records when we get back."

"Yeah, but I wonder what a 'Makai Diablos' is, I'd never head of a Nargacuga or Volganos, but Diablos is familiar," Nel said with curiosity in her voice.

"Well, 'Makai' means 'Hell'," Nikki said, "So it would be a 'Hell Diablos,' which doesn't sound friendly."

"It all makes me wonder," Felix said.

"Let's hurry back and ask old man Kefka to see what he can find," Kungen said, as the long and uneventful walk back began. When they finally got to the boat they put all the suppleis back on it, and prepared it for sailing.

"The sky is blue, not a cloud in sight, so let's hope it's a safe trip back home to the mainland, I'd also like to see a safe walk back to Pokke," Kungen said as he walked on the boat.

"Is everything ready to go?" Felix asked looking around.

"Yeah everything is on board," Nikki replied.

"Alright let's set sail back to the mainland!"


	6. The Quest Begins

"Hey Kefka!"

The old man slowly turned and looked to the guild hall's door, where the 4 hunters stood proud.

"We're back from your hellish trip."

"Oh wow you're back alive."

The look on the hunter's faces turned sour.

"Uh, so, how did the new species hunt go."

"We found countless new species of birds and bugs, and 2 new wyverns, I've recorded them in this notepad," Nikki said, tossing the notepad to Kefka.

"Excellent, how challenging were the wyverns?"

"One was nothing special, it's a new bird wyvern, pretty weak really, anyone who knows how to dodge an attack could kill it, but it could be dangerous to newbies, cause it was a little speedier than normal and had sleep breath as a secondary weapon."

"I see, and the other."

"A psuedowyvern with black fur and glowing red eyes, if seen you should run away, class S threat, only the best of the best in groups of 2 or more should pursue, but there may only have been the one, due to something else we saw, in a cavern under a great tree."

Kefka raised an eyebrow.

"Let's talk in your office, you have records of everything the guild has found there right?"

"Yes of course."

"Yeah let's go there then."

The group walked into the back room where Kefka's office was, the room was lined with books and trophies of slaughtered wyverns. They all stood around Kefka's desk, where the old man sat curious to hear what it was they found beyond the new wyverns.

"In the tower, hidden by trees, the floating god sleeps and gathers strength, he is protected by his guardians, the black nightmare of the great forest, Nargacuga, the lord of the sand sea The Makai Diablos, Ruler of the volcanos, Volganos. When all of the guardians fall the path to the great tower will open, and the sleeping god will wake, the tower will be guarded by the Silver King and Golden Queen, who will keep the passage to the god sealed, as he wreaks havoc on those who once opposed him," Nikki read off the other pad she had dedicated just to the words, and thoughts on them.

"Hmmm, and you believe the nightmare of the forest Nargacuga was the black psuedowyvern?"

"Yes, we're sure of that," Kungen said.

"If you leave that notepad with me Nikki, I can look into the guild records and get back to you tomorrow, I'm sure you're all tired."

"Yeah that'd be nice, I'd love a nap," Nikki said, handing the pad to Kefka.

"Alright let's all meet back here tomorrow," said Kungen.

All the hunters walked to their homes, eager for sleep.

-------------------------

The next day they all met up in front of the guild hall, Felix and Nel were there early, because Kungen and Nikki always slept longer than any normal person should. When everyone was there they walked in, and headed straight into Kefka's office.

"Well Kefka, watcha got for us?" Kungen blurted out eagerly awaiting information.

"Well I spent all night browsing every book in here, and I did decipher almost all of it."

"So first of all, what is the 'floating god'?"

"Well according to guild records there is an elder dragon far beyond average strength, called Yamatsukami. Yamatsukami was also thought of as a 'floating forest' when it was a threat 30 or 40 years ago. Picture an enormous octopus like being, with greenery growing on it's back, with great thunderbugs living inside of it that it can spew out at will."

"Sounds pretty….odd."

"It was, but a hunter from Kokoto repelled and supposedly killed it a while ago, then died from his wounds, but due to this passage, I don't think it is dead, and because of the line 'gathering strength' it could be more dangerous than ever."

"So it needs to be taken care of in the long run correct?"

"Yes, it does."

"And the guardians?" Nikki asked.

"Well the first guardian, Nargacuga, you've killed already, so that leaves the Makai Diablos and Volganos. Volganos is an extremely rare piscine wyvern that lives in lava, and can spew molten rock at will, It is very rare, and only one has been recorded, it has never been killed. And as for Makai Diablos, I have no idea, there is no record of any Diablos different from the normal brown and black."

"I see, and the Silver King and Gold Queen?"

"There exist in this world, beasts rarer than Kirin, and two of those beasts, are the Silver Rathalos, and Golden Rathian, only one of each has been recorded, and they have never been engaged, only sighted flying near a tower, which has been sealed off for over 25 years, which is one of the links that makes all of this add up."

"So essentially, Yamatsukami lives in a tower that is sealed, and according to the passage, a Makai Diablos and Volganos need to die to open the door, and in the tower a Silver Rathalos and Gold Rathian guard Yamatsukami itself."

"Right"

"Sounds like fun"

"If the four of you would be up for trying this, I can offer you top dollar for proof of Yamatsukami's death, that beast could destroy villages at a time if it got the chance."

"Well guys?" Kungen asked turning to the hunters.

"I'm up for it, it's the challenge we've been wanting," Nel said.

"I'm in, we could use the money, and experience, plus we'd all go in the record books if we can kill it," Felix said with a smile.

"Finally a mark that won't go down without a real fight, count me in," Nikki said.

"Then it's settled. Let's kill us a giant flying octopus…thing…" said Kungen.

"Well I'll start the search for Volganos and I'll tell you if I can find out what a Makai Diablos is, so return home and do whatever until I contact you, this is your first priority, the other hunters can take care of other jobs," Kefka said.

"Alright, personally I'd like to see if we can get anything made out of the materials from the new wyverns, I'll also work on supplies," Kungen said excitedly.

----------------

"Okay so how do we decide who gets stuff made from the new wyvern materials?" Kungen asked.

"Depends on what they can make with it I guess." Felix replied.

"I wish they'd hurry up the evaluation of those materials, I'd like to know just what they can make…" Nel said tapping her foot.

"Okay guys out of the black materials we can make some very light armor, more fit for someone agile, and also a small weapon, like a sword and shield or some dual blades, and there weren't very many materials from the other, so we already made the only thing we could, a bow."

"Nikki, the Narga materials sound like they were made for you, go get measured for your gear, and Nel will take the bow, how much for all of this."

"This one is on the house, we are getting to work with new materials after all."

"Thanks James."

James had been working in the crafting shop for years and years, he had actually grown up with Felix and Kungen in Pokke, he was good at what he did and he enjoyed it, he felt like he was up there with the hunters since he made what they used after all.

"Here's the bow, and the rest will be done tomorrow," James said handing Nel a bow covered in bright feathers and dressed with the beak of the wyvern they had slain.

"Hmmm, I like it," Nel said taking aim with an arrow and shooting it into the distance.

"Hopefully you can use it soon, I'd like to find the volganos or makai diablos soon."

"I would too, I'm anxious to see these new kinds of monsters."

"Let's get some dinner at the guild hall and then hit the hay," Kungen said.

The guild hall was always filled with merriment at dinner time, all the hunters ate there and drank their fill of ale, there was always at least one dancing on a table.

In celebration Kungen ordered more ale than normal with his meal, and by the end of the night he was completely smashed.

"Kungen maybe you shouldn't drink that much," Felix said.

"You can't tell me 'ow much to drink!"

"What's that! I can't hear you over your liver screaming!"

"Oh Shaddup!"

"I'm really tired, I think I'm off to bed, see you all in the morning," Nikki said as she walked out.

"Now that you menshun it I'm really sleepy too…" Kungen fell asleep right there head resting on the table.

"Not again."

"I'll take him home," Felix said "Then I'll head to my place and sleep too, good night Nel."

"Night Felix."

The next morning they were all waiting in front of the crafting shop for Nikki to get her new armor and weapon.

"My head….freaking hurts.." Kungen said.

"I told you not to drink so much."

"Shaddup Felix."

Nikki walked out of the back of the crafting shop in her new armor, it looked like it would fit her style of fighting very well, it didn't offer much protection but it would allow her to move very quickly. Her new blades resembled black wings, and were sharp enough to draw blood just from a light touch.

"I like it, I'll go put it up in my closet back home."

"No need," a voice said approaching them.

"Kefka?"

"Yes, all of you get ready quick, Volganos was sighted and I'd like all of you to get out to the Volcano immediately."


	7. Tales of a Volcanic Nothing

"It's really, _really_ hot."

"Stop your whining."

"Both of you shut up, so where is the Volganos exactly."

"Wherever there's enough lava for it to swim around freely."

"Find the sea of lava and we're home free?"

"Well yeah but then we gotta kill it."

"Kungen you brought a map right, is anywhere marked with lots of lava?"

"Not that I see."

"Damn."

"Honestly, why does it have to be so hot, and a maze, it really is like a living hell."

The group came to an area with charred ground, and they saw what they were seeking, mass amounts of open lava.

"There we go."

"Now we just gotta find a giant piscine swimming in it, then get him to come up here."

Kungen scanned the open sea of lava, and saw something sticking out.

"Think I found our mark."

The three members of the group with melee weapons lined up along the lava, and Nel sat back aiming at the fin. Nel fired at the fin and a head poked out of the lava, looking straight at the three lined up. The Volganos then swam deep under the lava.

"Get ready to dodge…something, if it's like plesioth, it'll shoot something that hurts at us."

The ground behind Felix, Kungen, and Nikki then began to visually heat up. Then the rock started melting, turning molten, and the Volganos shot up out of the hole.

"I was not…expecting that."

The beast was not as tall as plesioth, but was bulkier, and bigger around. It stared at Nikki and reared its head back and shot a ball of molten rock from its mouth, Nikki rolled towards the piscine, evading the attack by inches.

"So that's what it does."

"I'll go for the legs," Felix said rushing forward.

"Be careful, watch the tail."

Volganos didn't see Felix rushing at it, but turned to Kungen, and dropped to the ground, and started quickly snaking along the ground, but unlike when plesioth did this just to get away, it was coming straight at him, with murderous intent.

"Awww hell.."

Kungen turned to the side and ran away, and dove to dodge the attack.

"That looks dangerous."

Nikki ran at the Volganos as it was getting back up from snaking along the ground, and began a devlish dance of hacking and slashing only slightly scarring the tough hide of the monster at first, but eventually each attack cut deeper and deeper, maiming the legs of the piscine.

The beast screeched with pain, but it could take it, it was tougher than most. Kungen was rushing at the monster charging an attack to break through its tough skin. As Volganos turned to Nel who had been firing arrows the whole time, but to no avail because of its tough hide, it reared its head back to fire magma. Kungen was looking for this chance because it would have to lower its head to fire in a straight line at Nel, then he would deliver the attack, to daze it and then deal the finishing blow. Wrong.

As the Lavasioth's head came foreward it shot the magma straight down melting the rock beneath, it dove into the hole, and swam back to the open sea of lava. The group of hunters were dazed, and didn't know what had just happened. Suddenly the Volganos came up from behind them and shot magma at them from its safe zone in the lava. The projectile was coming straight at Felix. He knew if the hot rock made contact with his skin he would be toast. So he did what he had to do, he raised his sword and blocked the attack. He knew what he had done though caused him to be useless for the rest of the fight, as his weapon slowly melted into nothing.

"Idiot, now what can you do."

"Distract it, which is what we need to do."

Felix reached into a pouch on his belt and took out a sonic bomb, and threw it at the Volganos.

The sound aggravated the wyvern, and it jumped from the hot lava, and landed behind the hunters. Felix picked up the handle of his Obelion, and threw it at the head of the wyvern as it turned around, clunking it on the head.

The wyvern was aggravated with Felix, its ears were ringing, it had just been plopped on the head with a hard piece of bone and steel that was tough enough to hold a 40 pound sword. It turned to Felix and shot hot magma at him, Felix evaded the attack and Nikki ran to the Volganos's legs and began hacking away once more, the wyvern paid no attention to its legs that were burning with pain, it just wanted to kill Felix. The blood was flying from Nikki's swords and the piscine's legs as it repeatedly shot magma at Felix who was easily avoiding the attack with no weapon to weigh him down. Kungen was on the sidelines charging an attack so that when Felix rotated around the wyvern and got it to face him he would unleash the attack on its head. But the unexpected happened - for Volganos. Nikki had been hacking away for so long that she had cut through the obsidian exterior of Volganos, through the thin membrane of skin, and into muscle. Nikki cut through the muscles and into the bone of Volganos's leg, causing it to fall over, and it was also unable to get up, Kungen ran over and brought his hammer down on Volganos's head, he was surprised when this didn't kill it, but he kept whacking away and eventually the poor piscine's head caved in and it stopped squirming.

"Those swords are pretty nice."

"Yeah, took a while to cut all the way through but its hide was something else."

"Yeah it's a pure obsidian shell."

Kungen motioned to the rest of the group.

"Alright guys scrap him, and lets go home, he was a lot easier than Nargacuga, lets hope James can make you a new sword though Felix."

"Yeah…I'll make sure to carry as many materials as I can so I can assure that he can."

"Good idea."

--------------

"Yeah I can make a sword with this, Greatsword right Felix?"

"Yup, that's my style."

"Alright come back tomorrow, it'll be ready."

"Sweet."

"So what now?" Nel asked.

"Let's report to Kefka and get some food," Kungen said, already walking to the guild hall.

"Sounds good," Nikki said following.

Uppon entering the guild hall, Kungen immediately placed an order for his dinner, and then turned to the rest of them.

"Save me a seat, I'll go report to Kefka."

Kungen walked through the office door, and saw Kefka sitting at his desk, like he always was.

"So how was Volganos."

"Not bad, the only casualty was Felix's sword."

"That's what molten hot rock does to things."

"No shit." Kungen paused and then the look on his face turned sour. "So Kefka, I need to know, because these guardians are pretty strong, just how strong is Yamatsukami."

"Well, I can't give you a good idea, but your lives are on the line, that's for sure."

"We're hunters, our lives are on the line every single day, what I want to know is if we're commiting glorified suicide."

"I really don't know, Yamatsukami was repelled by one hunter who was one of the best ever, but there was just one of him, there's four of you."

"I'm just worried."

"I can understand, usually the only requests around here are for khezu and the occasional blangonga, maybe a rathalos here or there, but that's all easy compared to what you're going against."

"We'll keep going, Volganos was a morale boost for me, he was easier than the last one, but I just don't know if I ever really want to find that rare diablos."

Kungen walked out of the room without any notice.

He sat down next to Nikki and across from Felix, and lowered his head and thought. He thought about the consequences of such dangerous hunts that he was wishing for at one point, but now, he missed easy mode Khezu.

"Kungen you're food came while you were in Kefka's office, here," Nikki slid a plate piled high with meat and veggies over to Kungen.

"Thanks."

"What's wrong? You seem out of it."

"I am just a little, don't worry, I'm fine."

"If you say so."

They all ate and went home quietly, without Kungen brightening the mood, they knew something was wrong, so they didn't say a word.

The next day they went by the crafting shop to pick up Felix's sword, it shone brightly for having such a dark blade, it was incredibly sharp, and emitted heat without even getting too close to it.

"This is one of my better pieces, swining it can evoke fire, and if it sees a spark it can even cause an explosion."

"Now I gotta kill something with it to break it in, thanks James. I'll just run this home, go wait in the hall for me."

Felix ran off and the other three went to the guild hall, and sat. They waited to hear news of the mysterious Diablos that they had to kill to release the final lock on the tower. They ate lunch at the hall and waited, and waited for what seemed like days, though it was just a few hours. They sat in the Guild hall till around midnight, no news. They all went to bed annoyed that they couldn't find the last guardian.

-----------------

As they sat in the guild hall bored for the second straight week they started to wonder if they could find _anything_ to a amuse them, a stick or a dead rat would have brought them more joy then waiting for scouts to find something they were starting do doubt the existence of.

When the clock struck 11 at night, they all stood up ready to leave, when through the door barged a wounded hunter. Kungen looked at him closer and realized it was Ivan, the man who was the main village hunter until Felix and Kungen took over. He was a skilled hunter there was no doubt about that.

"You alright?"

"Not really..I was fighting a Diablos, they're a routine hunt for me but this one was different, it was faster, stronger, and had a much harder shell, It ran me down and got a piece of me with its horn but I broke it off," Ivan held out an enormous horn to them. "It's still out there, that Diablos is not normal."

"So there's a one horned super diablos out in the desert?"

"Yeah, basically."

"Kungen?" Nikki turned to Kungen.

"Yeah it has to be, get ready, we leave now, we'll get sleep at the desert base camp."


	8. Desert Showdown

"….ake up ngen."

"Five more minutes.."

"Wake up Kungen!"

"I'm too tired to move."

"I said wake up asshole!"

Nel delivered a kick straight into the side of Kungen, who sat up quickly.

"That hurt you know."

"Get your gear, we need to find that diablos."

"Right right, gimme a sec."

----------------------------

"Nothing but sand…for miles…"

"Sand and rocks."

"Well yeah, rocks too."

"How are we supposed to find the diablos anyway, it could be anywhere in this hellhole."

"Just look for signs that it's been in the area."

The group walked on, and came to an oasis, with immense rock formations all around. There they saw just what they were looking for corpses, but they didn't just see Apceros corpses like they were expecting, there were two Diablos carcases with fresh wounds.

"Yipes."

"It must have been here, Diablos are territorial, it must have fought and killed them both."

"But both of them at the same time….this Diablos must be something else."

They stopped at the oasis and drank, then rested on a large circular rock formation near the pool.

"How did this rock get to be so perfectly circular.."

"Iunno, does it matter?"

"No, not really, just curious."

Kungen started climbing up the rock to the top.

"What're you doing Kungen?"

"I'm going to see what I can see from on top of this thing, maybe I'll be able to see it, those carcases were fresh."

"Go for it."

Kungen slowly climbed to the top of the rock, and as he pulled himself up , a tremor shook the ground, almost causing him to fall.

"What was that?"

"I'm sure it was just a small earthquake."

Kungen pulled himself to the top and looked down at his companions that were sitting on the shaded side of the rock., then looked past them into the distance.

"Nothing over there."

Kungen slowly turned around, just to see an enormous Diablos, with one horn, staring at him.

"Holy Shit!!"

Kungen jumped off the rock to the other hunters and on the way down it occurred to him that the tremor was the Diablos burrowing out of the ground, it knew they were there.

"Diablos Diablos Diablos!"

And then a piercing roar shattered their ears, they covered the ears and when it seemed to be over they prepared for battle.

"Nel I want you to get on top of that rock I was just on, and fire at the Blos's eyes, that'll be the only part of it you can pierce, if we blind it we can take advantage of it charging around, Nikki, aim for the legs, I'll do the same, Felix try to cut off its tail, that thing is stronger than any other hammer."

They all nodded and mentally prepared, then sprinted out from the cover of the rock, and Nel climbed to its top.

The diablos took a minute to observe where they all were placed, and what they were doing. It sat still, mentally preparing itself for battle as well.

Then Kungen burst ahead and swung his hammer with everything he had straight at the legs of the Diablos, it was caught off guard, and started to fall, but it recovered in the middle of the fall and swung its tail at the hunter. Kungen ducked under the hammer-like tail that could have taken his head off easily. Felix followed the tail with his eyes, knowing that it was a huge threat and raised his massive sword, and slowly crept up to the massive desert king. Nikki was trying to give Felix and opening by driving her swords into the leg of the blos, but it had no effect at all, it barely even pierced the shell.

Meanwhile Nel had reached the top of the rock, and was taking aim with her bow, she fired a few arrows that missed the only penetratable spot of the Diablos's head, its eye. She then held a shot for several seconds, releasing it into the right eye of the monster.

The Diablos wailed in pain, its vision was halved, but it had something else on its side, it was filled with pure, unbridled rage, when wyverns were mad they were stronger, faster, tougher opponents.

The desert wyvern was caught off guard but it knew it was time to fight back, it placed its one eyed gaze right on Nel and rammed into the rock that she was standing on, sending her flying. Nel landed on the other side of the rock, dazed and brusied. The blos then looked over its back to Kungen that had just tried once more to sweep its feet out from under it. It turned to him and swung its tail, Kungen dodged the attack with a well timed jump to avoid the sweeping attack, but then the blos brought its tail back around and hit Kungen square in the side, sending him flying several feet and landing against a rock, and fell unconscious.

Felix took advantage of the Diablos not knowing where he was, and as it brought its tail back from swatting Kungen away, Felix brought down his sword and to his surprise, the sword with the sharpest edge he had ever seen, bounced off, doing no damage at all, but attracting the attention of the monster. It glared right at him and lowered its head, and charged, Felix jumped and dove to avoid the attack but was vulnerable if the blos was fast enough to get back to him. But the Diablos knew Felix was expecting to be charged at again, and instead went for Nikki with its tail. Nikki made a move that no one had expected. She jumped above the tail but then grabbed onto it.

The Diablos could not shake her off, Nikki slowly climbed up the Blos's tail, and along its enormous torso, and got to its head. The wyvern was panicking now, it knew it was going to get hurt, it just didn't know how badly. Nikki then held on with one arm, and with all her strength, drove her sword into the maw of the diablos, making only a small scratch. The Diablos decided it would roar to shake her grip, but Nikki saw this coming, and made the one move she could to damage it, she stuck her hand in its opening mouth and drove her sword through its bottom jaw.

Nikki quickly pulled her arm out so she would be allowed to keep it, but the Diablos was blind with fury now and moved wildly like a Rajang, trying to shake her, and eventually did. Nikki lost her grip and was sent flying into the circular rock formation.

Nel had gotten out of her daze from falling by this point, and moved around the side of the rock to see the diablos charge at Felix, he evaded nimbly but then Nel tripped. The sound drew the attention of the Diablos, and it turned to her, and with no warning charged with all its might. Nel tried to get up as quick as she could and by the time she was standing she was staring right down the horn of the beast.

The desert went quiet as Felix and Nikki who had just regained their footing looked in horror as they saw the Diablos had its horn stuck in the rock wall, but between the blos and the rock, was the lifeless body of Nel, who had been gored by the one remaining horn.

"No way…" Felix managed to utter

The Diablos knew it had won over one of the hunters, but its horn was stuck deep, too deep to get out quickly, it had to rely on its own physical strength to survive any attack while it tried to get out of the rock.

"Gotta think gotta think.." Felix mumbled as he went through his pouch looking for anything to hurt the wyvern whose shell so far had proven invincible. Just then he knew what to do, it was the most dangerous thing he could do, but it was the only thing he could do, Felix sprinted over to Kungen and went through the pouch on the unconscious hunter's belt, and took out a large canister of gunpowder, and flint. The Diablos was able to move its head slightly as it started to pull harder to get out of the mess it was stuck in. Felix rushed to Nikki.

"Nikki, give me your gunpowder."

"Y-yeah of course…"

She handed him two containers of the explosive poweder that she carried. Felix then took two more from his pouch and popped them all open, he poured the gunpowder as fast as he could in one immense pile under the diablos, who was able to move a little more and more every second. As Felix emptied the last canister of gunpowder he moved over to the head of the diablos, and punched it in its remaining eye, as he did so he took the bow of his dead friend, took one of her arrows, and lit the wood of the arrow on fire with the flint, he ran away from the diablos with the flaming arrow drawn, with a large distance between him and the Blos, he turned to it and pulled back on the string of the bow.

"Nikki move!"

Nikki sprinted away from the blos as it finally pulled its head out of the wall, but just then, Felix released the arrow, as it whizzed the the air towards the pile of explosive powder, he shed a tear for his fallen friend. The Explosion was nothing anything smaller then Fatalis could survive, the flames rose to the sky, as the air cleared, the Diablos was burned beyond recognition. Flesh had been burnt straight off its bones, and it was charred black as night.

The sound and heat forced Kungen awake, and he looked at the destruction. Felix and Nikki ran to Kungen to make sure he was okay.

"Is it dead?"

"Nothing could have survived that."

"Where's Nel?"

Nikki and Felix stared at their feet, and grim looks slipped across their faces. Kungen turned to the rock he was resting against and punched it with all he had, ignoring the fact that he had just broken his hand.

"I couldn't do a damn thing, I'm so useless, 5 minutes into the fight I get knocked out..I'm pathetic."

"No Kungen, its not your fault."

"Yes it is! Nel is dead because of me, if I had given better commands, if I had been stronger to knock the damn blos over…"

Nikki knelt down to Kungen and punched him in the stomach.

"Nel would now want you thinking like that you helpless ass! We all fought hard, she fought to the end! She died a brave hunter."

Kungen just looked down and slowly stood up. He walked over to where the sand was loose, and started digging with his hands. When he had made a hole that was about 6 feet long, 3 feet deep and 2 feet wide, he slowly walked over to Nel, and picked up her burned lifeless body, placed her in the ditch and started to bury her. When she was covered, Kungen raised his hammer over the horn of the Diablos, and crushed the impact point to dust. He picked up the horn, and stuck the it in the ground at the head of the grave, with the point looking to the sky. He then knelt before the grave and wept.

All Felix and Nikki could do was watch. Nikki turned away and vomited, she couldn't take what was happening, her mind was rejecting it. Felix just wept silently against a rock.

Kungen stood up and returned to the two other hunters.

"Let's go home and get ready to take out Yamatsukami, for Nel."

The two nodded gently, and started a silent walk back to Pokke.


End file.
